Can Medicare PPO plans cure insurers' chronic ills? Pilot program offers alternative to Medicare HMOs; seniors may be wary.(News)(Brief Article)

Crain's New York Business, October, 2002 by Sisson, Mary

Byline: mary sisson Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey was about to pull the plug. The Newark-based insurer offers health maintenance organization plans for Medicare recipients throughout the state. But government reimbursements were not keeping pace with rising costs, and Horizon was constantly raising premiums and cutting benefits.

``We might have pulled out this year,'' says Robert Meehan, Horizon's vice president of consumer and commercial markets. Horizon decided to keep its Medicare HMO, however, when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced early this year a plan to encourage the development of Medicare preferred provider organizations. In late August, Horizon became one of five insurers selected to offer Medicare...

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